Cleveland Browns: What’s the deal with Damarious Randall?

Last season, Damarious Randall was a star in the Cleveland Browns defensive backfield. This season, he finds himself sitting at home in Week 13 as a healthy scratch

A lot can change in a year. In 2018, free safety Damarious Randall was playing the best football of his life for the Cleveland Browns and looked poised for another big season. There was also talk of the Browns extending him as he played on the final year of his rookie deal.

Now in Week 13 of the 2019 season, Randall is all but gone as he’s become a healthy scratch as the team flies to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers.

Not only will he be sitting out of the game, but apparently he won’t even make the trip with the team.

It’s worth noting that when the two teams last played, Randall was ejected from the game for a helmet-to-helmet hit on wide receiver Diontae Johnson. Since that hit, the Browns safety said he received death threats on social media.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason Randall won’t make the trip but the team hasn’t come out and said as much. It also leaves them incredibly thin at the position as fellow starter Morgan Burnett was lost for the season when he tore his Achilles against the Steelers.

Cleveland is also without their third safety as Jermaine Whitehead was released following his Twitter tirade after the team lost to Denver.

On the season, Randall has 35 tackles and two sacks in seven games. For the first time in his career, he has zero interceptions on the year and could be running out of time to continue that streak.

Perhaps we will see him back on the field when the team comes home for a Week 14 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. If not, then things could get real interesting between him and the team.